Defoe can help MLS reach new heights, insists Toronto chief (... and he should know, he brought Beckham to America)

The man who sold Major League Soccer to Jermain Defoe has grand ambitions for the global game here in North America.

Tim Leiweke, the president and CEO of the $2 billion sports franchise that owns Toronto FC and now pays Defoe's wages, wants to see the MLS become 'one of the five biggest leagues in the world'.

He also has a vision of a global super league that supersedes the Champions League and so enables the best of the MLS to compete against Europe’s finest in ‘something more meaningful than a pre-season friendly’.

Instant hit: Jermain Defoe celebrates scoring what proved to be the winner against DC United on Saturday

Vision: Tim Leiweke has grand ambitions for the global game in North America

‘Whatever a Superclub competition might be, we need to eventually try go and do it,’ he says.

A look at Defoe’s home debut for Toronto against DC United at the BMO Field on Saturday might have you thinking Leiweke is a hopeless romantic.

The quality of the football was desperately poor at times, even if Defoe made the best of a dreadful pitch and some pretty awful service to score the one goal that enabled Ryan Nelsen’s side to celebrate winning their opening two games of the season for the first time in their short history.

Having scored both goals in their encounter in Seattle the previous week, Defoe is certainly earning his money. Leiweke seems to think so given he was waiting pitch-side to give him a congratulatory hug at the end of the game.

But Leiweke is a serious individual. A 56-year-old American who gets things done. It might have taken him two years to lure David Beckham to LA Galaxy but he delivered the then most famous footballer in the world.

‘I went to his home, I went to Madrid, I invited David and Victoria to my daughter’s wedding. I travelled the globe chasing him down. It took me two years but we got there,’ he proudly declares.

Quest: Leiweke (left) spent two years convincing David Beckham to leave Real Madrid for Los Angeles

Sitting in his office at the Air Canada Centre in downtown Toronto, the huge sporting complex that is home to the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment franchise – and within that the Maple Leafs ice hockey team and the Raptors basketball team - I ask Leiweke why he ever bothered with ‘soccer’ when the major American sports are so dominant in the market place. His old job meant he took care of the LA Lakers as well as the Galaxy. Why not stick to the stuff that makes the big money?

‘I think that’s the best question I’ve ever been asked,’ he says with a huge roar of laughter.

‘It’s because we’re naive here in North America to think our sports are the biggest in the world. They’re not. There’s this game that the rest of the world is playing and we need to become part of it.’

Leiweke says Beckham’s impact has been significant in putting soccer on the North American map.

‘ESPN ran a survey recently that was very interesting,’ he says. ‘It focused on 12 to 21 or 24-year-olds; basically the young group we aspire to capture. In the US, in their world, the NFL is king. Here in Canada it’s the NHL.

‘Five years ago it was then the NBA. College basketball was bigger than soccer too. And baseball, of course. Back then, we would say, you could hear the crickets. There was no pulse around soccer. No buzz.

Popular: Football has been growing in North America, largely thanks to Beckham's influence

Party time: Toronto FC supporters celebrate Defoe's goal against DC United on Saturday

Bright start: Defoe has settled in quickly at Toronto after his move from Tottenham earlier this year

‘But today it’s changed. The survey had the MLS tied with Major League baseball, and I attribute a lot of the credit to David. He also made it okay for other guys, like Thierry Henry and Robbie Keane, like Jermain and Michael Bradley, to make the jump here. That was important.’

Leiweke takes great pleasure in seeing Beckham take up the option of establishing his own MLS franchise in Miami. He sees it as a ‘reward’ for all that the former England captain has done for the sport here.

‘He has the chance to go from being one of the great sportsmen to a great businessman,’ says Leiweke.

Toronto FC has the potential to become a great business too, he claims.

He’s less than a year into the job in Toronto but the cultural diversity of North America’s fourth largest city is something Leiweke is looking to exploit in a big way. To the point where Toronto FC could become the business model that the other MLS franchises aspire to imitate.

Pioneer: Beckham enjoyed success in the MLS with LA Galaxy after moving from Real Madrid

Leading the way: Other big name played have followed in Beckham's footsteps and moved to the MLS

'This year we will not make money,’ he says. ‘But next year I believe it will be different.

‘The plans are in place for a $120m expansion of our stadium but the bigger potential is in the wider fan base. Around 1.5m people watched some part of the Seattle game. Around 300,000 watched from beginning to end. And remember, this is in a country with a population of 35m. Now, around 6m will watch the Maple Leafs play Montreal (Saturday night) but we have a chance to break through here.’

Success on the field is, of course, essential and interest will grow among Canadians if Toronto keeps winning. Leiweke saw to it that the Galaxy became a championship-winning team and that is now the intention here.

But it will not be easy for Nelsen given the squad he has to work with. A squad representative of the unique challenge MLS soccer presents to a manager.

Defoe might be earning somewhere in the region of £4m a year – we will know the exact figure soon enough because the MLS publish the salaries of the players every season – but some of his team-mates are earning as little as $46,000 and English Conference wages would be about right given the very obvious drop in quality.

For the record Henry is quoted as earning $4.35m while Keane is on $4.33m, the ‘Designated Player’ system enabling three players to exist outside the league wage restrictions.

High earners: Defoe has joined Robbie Keane (left) and Thierry Henry as the highest-paid players in the MLS

Quite how such disparity affects a dressing room is hard to ascertain. There is a famous story of Beckham going out for a team meal when he first arrived in LA and allowing the bill to be divided up between all of them when guys earning $35,000 a year might have expected the multi-millionaire to pick up the tab. In fairness to Beckham, he probably didn’t want to come across as a big-time Charlie. But therein lies the problem. How does one deal with these issues?

There will be players in the Toronto dressing room who still live at home with their parents, or at the very least are sharing an apartment with team-mates and use public transport to get to training when Defoe will be driving his big, fancy car. According to reports out here, the house he will soon be renting has a heated driveway; an essential extra, one might argue, given it was -10C this weekend.

The reports also say Defoe is settling in well, though. His work ethic is something that has impressed his colleagues and he is anything but aloof. You could not wish to meet a warmer, friendlier individual, who even took the presence of 30 reporters watching him emerge from the shower and get dressed in his stride.

Up close and personal: Journalists enjoy more access to players in the MLS than in the Premier League

That said, he only just remembered in time to wrap a towel around himself. ‘I forgot you boys would be in here,’ he said before giving a brief interview I spent staring at the ceiling. Apparently he was wearing flip-flops.

This, of course, is the norm in American sport and Defoe gets that. He gets the fact that 20,000 impressively enthusiastic supporters will soon become 30 or even 40,000. He gets the fact that defenders of inferior ability will resort to more physical tactics that leave him bruised and battered.

'You know what I was saying about it being tough out here,’ he said. ‘I’m sore man.’

He also gets the fact that he, like Beckham, Henry and Keane, are pioneers.

But don’t bet against them becoming part of something big. It’s North America, after all, and this guy Leiweke means business.

Flying the flag: Defoe has helped Toronto their best-ever start in the MLS with two wins from two